Things Change
by iCyou
Summary: Things change. People change. Emotions change. Hearts break, friends grow apart, love collapses into ruin, forever becomes once upon a time, when becomes if, and wants become needs. A lot's changed since that endless summer. Ferb/Isabella/Phineas
1. Rejection

Love didn't mean being happy. Isabella had known that from the beginning.

Love is about longing, depression, hatred, denial, and pain. Love is when you find someone that puts you through hell, and for some bizarre reason you find yourself unable to walk away from them despite all the pain they inflict.

When you love someone you give them the power to destroy you, and even though you know at the end of the day that's exactly what they're going to do… you can't help but give into them anyway.

Isabella looked up at her bedroom ceiling with tears in her eyes. She didn't even try to wipe them away.

Sometimes it was hard not to blame Phineas Flynn for everything. She knew it wasn't his fault, but sometimes she just needed someone to blame.

Phineas couldn't help it if he didn't like her back. Sometimes the connection didn't go both ways.

It still hurt though. What hurt the most wasn't that he'd rejected her… it was that she still liked him. It had been _months._ She should have gotten over him by now.

She knew he felt guilty every time he saw her.

He knew her too well. She'd been neighbors and close friends with him and his family since kindergarten. No matter how well she could hide her inner turmoil from everyone else, he could always see it. She couldn't decide if that amazed her, frightened her, or angered her.

It was hard enough to deal with a broken heart, without him constantly asking her if she was okay. He knew that answer to that just as well as she did.

Of course she wasn't okay. It was obvious.

She still told him she was fine, just so he could pretend she was alright. She liked to see him happy, even if she wasn't.

She was starting to think that maybe she never would be happy again, and worse yet she was starting to accept it.

She'd liked him for as long as she could remember, since way back when they were just kids in the play pen… and sixteen years later nothing had changed. Except everything.

She was still the same Isabella that used to sell fire side girl cookies, help build magnificent machines all summer long, and smile at anyone who looked her way. She was just all grown up. Less naïve. More realistic. More miserable. But weren't those just the normal side-effects of aging?

Phineas and Ferb were a thing of the past. After their parent's divorce their brotherly bond had slowly dissolved. Isabella hadn't seen Ferb in god knows how long. He wasn't social by nature, so once he moved away he rarely made an effort to meet up with any of his old chums.

Isabella always thought that, maybe, he just didn't care. Maybe, he just wanted a clean break from his old life. A fresh start without Phineas, Candace, Baljeet, Buford, or her. She could understand why. The divorce had been a messy ordeal. If the same thing had happened in her family she probably would want to erase as much of the past as she could. Ferb probably just wanted a clean slate, and she could respect that.

He crossed her mind from time to time, but as the years rolled on she slowly found herself letting go of the memories she'd once held so dear to her heart.

Candace had moved in with Jeremy a couple months ago and didn't come by very much. Isabella was happy that she got her fairytale ending. Not many people could say the same. She barely talked to her mom or little brother anymore, and she'd never been that close with Isabella in the first place.

She could still see Buford and Baljeet anytime she wanted, they both still lived in the neighborhood after all. She used to do so quite a bit, but after a while they drifted away like childhood play-mates have a tendency to do.

She was too old for the fire-side girls now, and had been for a couple years. After she left the troop she found her old friends slowly leaving her. Some of them just went in different social directions, some moved away, others just disappeared. Honestly Isabella had forgotten some of their names. It was strange how close you could be with someone yet after a little time and distance the bond is forgotten. Eventually even the memories of what once was begin to fade away.

Phineas was the only one left.

She'd been content to live that way. She missed the others, but as long as she had Phineas she could survive.

Then a few months back she'd finally told him how she felt. His rejection was like a slap in the face to her that never stopped burning.

Isabella looked at the picture of him that she always kept on her nightstand. His smiling eyes stared back at her, and her heart broke a little more with every minute that ticked by.

She wished she could have him back. Not that she'd ever really had him in the first place.

No, she wished she could have the dream of him back. The hope. The possibility.

She wished she could go back to running away from the truth, and pretending that he liked her back. She was so much happier when she could live in blissful ignorance.

She couldn't go back now that he'd burst her bubble no matter how much she yearned to. She'd always known it would be like this at the end of the day. That's just how love works.

Love isn't a happy thing. It's a horrible, grueling, traumatic, thing that you can't help but be obsessed with. It's tears, hopeless dreams, loneliness, and restless nights.

It's never being able to give up on that one person, despite your better judgment, despite all the misery they put you through. You just keep coming back for more even when your mind's screaming at you to run away because you'll just get hurt more than you already have, even if you cry into your pillow every night, even if you can feel yourself losing your grip on reality…

You'll always go back, because you don't know how to move on.

That's love. Isabella knew that, just like deep down she always had.

She turned her back to the picture of Phineas, but she never could turn away from him for long. Even in his photo form he held some kind of hypnotic magic in his eyes that pulled her too him like a moth to a flame.

She looked at that picture all night long. She didn't stop crying until she fell asleep, burying her face into her wet pillow.


	2. Who Cares?

Ferb rolled out of the unfamiliar bed he woke up in next to the equally unfamiliar woman he'd woken up next to.

_Shit… I've got to quit drinking._

He thought as he looked his bed-mate up and down.

This seemed to be becoming almost a nightly thing. It seemed like every morning he was in a different bed, with a different woman, who never seemed to be as drop dead gorgeous as she'd appeared the night before. Probably because of the adverse influence of being intoxicated.

Being very careful not to wake up the girl he slowly creeped up to the door as he simultaneously slipped his clothes on.

"Ferb? Ferb, where are you going?" The girl mumbled half asleep.

He hated this part.

"Home."

"But don't you want to stay a little longer?"

"No."

"You don't even have my phone number!"

"I wasn't planning on asking for it. Thank you, for last night. Have a good rest of your life." He said as he smoothly put on his shirt. Without another word he threw open the door and left, closing it gently behind him. Maybe, she'd just go back to sleep.

He heard crying from inside the door.

Or maybe she'd sob hysterically. He sighed softly. Everything that was moral in him wanted to go back and comfort her, but every logical piece of him told him to stay away. She'd just get clingy and beg him not to go once he left again, and it would just end up being that much harder.

He'd done this at least a hundred times in the past year.

When he was a child he wouldn't have even thought of doing such things. Then again a child never really thinks about having random drunk sex with a woman in her mid thirties, do they?

After his parents had gotten a divorce his dad had been miserable for years. The divorce was mostly Linda's idea, and she was the one that caused the marriage to collapse into ruin in the first place. It was all his ex-stepmother's fault.

His dad more or less stopped paying attention to him and just immersed himself in his own sorrow. Phineas at first had put his time into making useful inventions, but it just wasn't the same when he was alone.

After a few years he'd invented everything he could possibly imagine and was bored with all of it. Who really need a toaster that ran on vegetable oil? Not him.

That's when he started putting his creative energy into less constructive pursuits. Like beautiful women and beer. Why not put that "charming" and "oh so sexy" British accent of his to some good use?

Growing up he'd always been quiet, sweet, and overall just your typical nice guy. He lived by the rule that it's better to learn by listening than bother others by talking about his own issues. He wasn't really close with anyone, but that was fine by him. He didn't need anyone.

He was socially awkward and to some extent enjoyed isolation from his peers. There was no one to hurt him, betray him, or play with his emotions. He never let any of them get close enough to his heart.

Then he moved in with Phineas.

Phineas seemed to instantly love everything and everyone. He was a very positive, light, spirit. Naïve and child like even as they grew older.

Ferb had never let him in either, but he didn't have to. Phineas loved him anyway, and after a while Ferb started to value him on some level. That was the first time he'd ever cared about anyone on an at all personal level. Most of the time he just cared about himself and sometimes his dad. Everyone else could fall of the face of the earth and he wouldn't care at all.

Phineas changed that in a way. He made Ferb actually come to give a damn about another human being, though Ferb didn't always show it. They grew up together. They were brothers, not by blood but by bond.

Ferb found himself opening up a little, and once he opened that door… it suddenly wasn't just Phineas anymore. It was Linda. Candace. Isabella. Baljeet. Buford. Everyone.

For some reason when he was with Phineas being friendly toward others became much easier for him.

That endless summer… those were the best days of his life. He was happy, and he had friends. He loved that piece of his life. He cherished the experience even now.

Then he turned thirteen and the divorce hit, and hit hard.

His life just went to hell from there. He left the neighborhood and lost Phineas, his best friend, his brother. He lost all his friends. It was easily one of the worst ordeals of his life.

He never really saw any of them again. Sometimes he saw Isabella just walking through town. At least he thought it was her anyway. Everyone probably looked entirely different after puberty.

She looked healthy and relatively happy on the rare occasions when he caught a glimpse of her at the store or just crossing the street. He never called to her. He saw no reason to. She was just another thing of the past, just another memory. She probably was nothing like she was back then. Time changes people.

He wondered if she ever told Phineas how she felt. He always knew he'd just break her heart. Phineas never thought about things like girls. He viewed Isabella as a good friend, not a romantic partner. Secretly he had always wished she'd just come out and say it. The longer she drew it out the more she'd get hurt in the end.

Then again maybe Phineas had changed too. Maybe he thought about girls and things that didn't involve fun in the sun now. A lot could change in a couple years.

Ferb had changed. For starters he was back to the closed off little kid he was when he was young, just in a sixteen year old boys body. He'd lost his virginity to a sleazy tramp a little over a year and a half ago. He liked the sensation, and honestly could care less about the girls. So he fucked a new girl every night and moved on by the next morning. Half of them he probably wouldn't pursue if it weren't for alcohol.

He talked a little more. He was still a man of action with little use for his vocal cords, but he used them a tad bit more often. How else can you fuck girls if you can't turn on the charm of the British accent?

His whole life had pretty much turned to booze, sex, and apathy. He kind of liked it that way.

He hated it when the girls woke up before he got out the door like she had today. He couldn't remember her name. Not that he really ever did.

He hated leaving them crying. He did have a heart after all. He normally just shook the vague feeling of guilt away and ran off into the swiftly approaching dawn never to return.

He knew he was a douche bag but he did not care. Guys did it all the time. Why shouldn't he?

This morning was no different than any other morning.

Like every other morning he shrugged his shoulders, tried to ignore her pathetic wailing, and walked to the nearest bus stop. If it weren't a Saturday he would have been seriously late for school. Not that he really cared.

What was the point of caring about anything anymore?

**This fic is rated teen for a reason, so don't bash me about this chapter. Keep in mind he's not the 11 year old boy for the show anymore, and everyone's changed quite a bit. All characters are 16 at this point and Ferb is obviously… breeding like no tomorrow. This is probably about as graphic as it'll get (aside from profanity). If you're not mature enough to handle it then you're not mature enough to handle it.**


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